Quest for the meaning of 'Lo'

This morning as I prepared to go to work I thought it would be best to check the thermometer.  As you can see the outside temperature was 'Lo.'  But, what does that mean?  I had no choice, I had to go outside and find out for myself!

So, the first thing I did was collect my defensive gear.  Today was a day for gloves and a beanie.  Lo, here I come!

At first I thought I would ride my trusty stallion, but on entering the carpark it could not be seen.  Wait, there it is in the middle hiding under the snow.  My stallion is cunning!

I turned to begin my quest for the meaning of 'Lo,' and Lo, there in front of me was my children's preschool.  I can only hope that my kids were sitting down to a warm breakfast.  But not me, I was on a quest!

 The early signs were not promising.  Perhaps I should have heeded this sign?  But my students were waiting for me, and so I had to press on.

Soon I came to a fork in the road.  Should I take the narrow road or the broad road?

I took the wide road and soon discovered that there was nowhere to rest in this quest for 'Lo.'

Unfortunately some other travellers were not as fortunate as I were...

When crossing the bridge that spanned the mighty river I could not help but notice another traveller distributing food to the birds that lay below the bridge.

Here is the sun rising as I cross the bridge.

 From below the bridge smoke could be seen rising from the murky waters below.

I pressed on...

 At this point I lost feeling in my legs.  It was if the little red man was controlling me!

 Here are some icicles.  In the background you can see the smoke stack for the communal heater.

 At this point I lost feeling in my cheeks.

 At last I see that I am nearing my destination

Only one more corner!

 When I look at this shopfront, I feel very sorry for the mannequins wearing nothing much...

At last I arrive at school.  Now I truly understand the meaning of 'Lo.'

I apologise for the low quality of the photo's.  I took all the pictures with my phone camera because that is the only camera I can operate whilst wearing my thick gloves.  You can click on the photo's for bigger, clearer images.
It was actually minus 22 degrees Celsius when I left home and my thermometer only reads down to minus 20.
Apparently the night before it was minus 27.  Cold eh?

My Creative Space

"Monday is my Sunday, I don't have a thing to do except try and get up while it's still light" - the Whitlams

NaNoWriMo finished last month.  I wrote my book and now I am struggling to find things to fill my time with.  Today I have been very good.  I have cleaned my desk, tidied the living room, done some ironing and organised all my receipts.  Busy day.

I was even going to update my profile picture for Facebook, but I'm not feeling very photogenic today.  Instead I took some photo's of my 'creative space.'

The first image we have is my 'at hand' bookshelf.  At the moment it is quite empty.  I haven't finished reading my Charter's yet, but I will soon, promise.  You can also see theTruth and an expectant bookmark, waiting for my next read.  Which looks like a book called 'What the Dog Saw' by Malcolm Gladwell.

This second image shows my 1.5Tb backup disk drive (very important, and also useful for keeping my laptop disk clutter free), laser printer for making 'screaming outs' for my children, a semi-decent set of headphones and an assortment of stationery.  In the background you can see our Scottish flag cum curtain (the Australian flag is at the other end of the window).

This, the third picture shows my modem (recently upgraded to 8Mb/s - wow), a mess of cables (all entirely necessary, but tangled all the same).  That's my MacBook off the picture; it's quite boring so I didn't include it in the picture.  In the foreground you can see my Tesco clubcard letter.  They've given me 9zl worth of vouchers, but I always forget to take it with me when I go to the shops.  Under that is my 'CV' that I have written in order to apply for Polish citizenship.  Jola has very kindly translated it for me.  All I have to do now is type it up, in Polish.

I hear about a lot of my friends who have too much work and not enough hours.  My heart goes out to you, really!  Maybe I'm just thinking that, because it's Monday and I have my day off.  I was going to go shopping, but it has been snowing all day and I can't see my car (again).

In January I plan to start editing my NaNo book.  Apparently there is a possibility I could get it published, which would be great.  But for now I am going to make myself another cup of tea...

The Mysterious Red Fruit

In my fruit bowl I have a red fruit.  Well at least I think it is a fruit.

The Ugly Duckling in my fruit bowl

I'm really not even sure how it got there.  Did I buy it by accident?  Was it a gift from one of my wife's students?  Maybe it is an advanced listening device installed by our landlords?

In any event it has been sitting on our fruit bowl now for a couple of weeks.  When it first arrived we thought it was some sort of tomato because it was green, like a tomato that isn't ripe.  Now it is red.  Does that mean we can eat it now?  Whatever it is?

I suspect that it is one of those Chinese fruits that are so popular at the moment.  Some poor Chinese peasant probably picked it and put it in a train.  The train travelled a thousand kilometres to the port.  From the port the ship took our little fruit across oceans before arriving somewhere in Europe.  Then some truck driver drove another thousand kilometres to deliver it to our shop.
Now, somehow it is sitting in my fruit bowl.

I must eat it.  To do anything less would be insulting to the Chinese peasant who picked it from his (or her) tree, the train driver, the captain of the ship, the truck driver and the shop assistants who made it possible for this fruit to sit in my fruit bowl.  Even though I still have no idea what it is.

Does anybody know what it is and what I should do with it?

Here is another view (if it helps)

Happy Birthday Jola!

Last Saturday was my beautiful wife's birthday.
I can't remember how old she turned because I am not very good at remembering dates, especially birthdays.

One of the problems of living in Poland is that it is virtually impossible to buy meat pies.  And so, for Jola's birthday we made a meat pie with a smiley face.

(I forgot to put a glaze on the top, so it got a bit burnt, but it was still delicious!)


But of course it wouldn't be a real party without cake.  Cake is fantastic stuff, and my kids love helping out in the kitchen.

 Here they are licking the mixers clean.

Here they are applying the finishing touches.  Apparently pink icing tastes the best.

And here is Jola enjoying the finished product.

Happy Birthday Jolu!